Help!
by marine-machine
Summary: Gibbs is left fighting for his life!...Why isn't anybody helping him!


**Help!**

Rating: T

Summary: Gibbs fights for his life...why isn't anybody helping him??

AN: This is a bit of a weird fic, but the thought popped into my head, and seeing as I haven't posted anything in ages... Hope you like it!

* * *

Gibbs fell to the ground and gasped as his chest felt like it was about to explode. The fight had been going on for about ten minutes, ever since that bastard had shot him. Gibbs tried to get to his feet, but failed as the other man kicked him on his torso, causing Gibbs to fall to the ground again.

The man pounced on Gibbs and dug his fingers into Gibbs' bullet wound in his shoulder, causing Gibbs to yell out. "Huh? What was that? You want me to press harder?" the man asked

The man laughed into Gibbs' face and shot Gibbs' again, this time in his chest. Gibbs screamed despite his best efforts to stay silent. He could feel his body weakening from the constant onslaught. It had been an unfair fight from the beginning, but Gibbs had been able to put up a good fight, but now the tables were turning.

The man began hitting Gibbs again, until he was convinced Gibbs was no longer a threat. Gibbs watched as the man took off down the alley and out of his vision. Gasping for breath, Gibbs lay on the ground and looked up. For the first time since his struggle had began, he noticed that the alley was situated between two apartment blocks, both of which had windows facing the alley. Frowning, he noticed that a dozen of those windows were lit, showing silhouettes, the occupants were watching him.

"Help," he tried to shout, but nothing more than a gasp came out

Trying to maintain consciousness, Gibbs patted his pockets until he located his mobile. As he tried to pull his cell out, he began coughing up blood. _Oh shit, that can't be good_, he thought to himself.

Eventually the cough turned into a wheeze and Gibbs retrieved his cell. Breathing heavily, Gibbs looked up again and saw occupants of the apartments looking straight back at him.

Gibbs clumsily hit the buttons on his phone until he got speed dial #1, but when he went to press the call button, he hit the wrong one, which cancelled the call.

Another fit of coughing stopped his efforts, he tried to roll onto his side to stop the pain radiating from his body, but the pain seemed to intensify and Gibbs cried out again.

A moment of clarity made him realise that he had only one attempt left before he would lose consciousness. Wheezing, Gibbs squinted at his cell and managed to press the numbers he wanted.

As he pressed the device to his ear, he felt the darkness crowd in on him, _Not yet…hurry up Tony_ he thought, closing his eyes to draw strength

"DiNozzo," he heard a voice answer

Gibbs tried to answer, but a moan of pain came out instead

"Hello?" Tony said, sounding confused, "Is this a prank?"

Gibbs began coughing up blood, spraying the cell in red, leaving Gibbs wheezing again. His vision began blurring rapidly and he knew it wouldn't be too long till he lost the fight.

"Who's th… Gibbs?" Tony asked, immediately sounding worried

"Help," Gibbs moaned, before the darkness claimed him

* * *

"I don't get it," Tony told the team, leaning the wall in Gibbs' hospital room, "Over twenty people watched him almost die, heard his screams for help, and didn't do anything. They did nothing,"

"Tony, what happened – " Ducky started

"They almost let him die. If they'd done something to help, he may have been better off than he is now, but they didn't. How could someone – how could 26 people – just sit around and watch somebody else almost die?" Tony interrupted

"Can't put 'em all in prison," Gibbs croaked

"They deserve it," McGee commented

Kate sighed, "I heard about something like this in one of my psych classes. Those people would have seen everybody else watching as well, I mean the apartment blocks were facing each other and they would have seen everybody at their windows,"

"That doesn't explain anything," McGee sighed

"Actually it does," Ducky replied, taking up where Kate left off, "They would have thought that somebody else would have called for help, not knowing that nobody did. You see, as the number of people who see an incident increases, the likelihood that any of them will do something decreases. It's called diffusion of responsibility, or social loafing. If one person witnessed the attack, they would have been compelled to do something about it, because there was nobody else to rely on or to take blame,"

"I don't care what the psychology is behind it, they should have done something. Gibbs almost died," Tony replied

"Yeah, but I didn't die," Gibbs reminded him, closing his eyes.

"Only because Abby was able to trace your call, and at that, if I didn't have caller ID, or if your cell had low battery and died, or if you dropped the phone and the call was ended," Tony responded

"Yeah and what if you hadn't been able to make the call?" McGee commented

"You can't live life depending on 'what ifs'" Ducky told them gently

"Ducky, Gibbs almost died, like it was soooo close," Abby said, "Those people should have done something. If I saw somebody in that situation, I would call just in case. Everybody should call **just in case**,"

* * *

AN: This phenomena is actually a real one, I heard about it in my first year of psychology. And a situation like this occurred a few years ago, a woman was murdered whilst, I think 36 people watched and did nothing. There have been numerous experiments and real life examples that show the same thing. Although, if people yell 'fire' instead of 'help' there's a higher likelihood that people will react. Okay, now I'll stop rambling...

Hope you liked it! Please review:)


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